


The King of Thorns

by Rainbow_Gigglemug



Category: Original Work
Genre: LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Male Slash, Not Beta Read, Original Character(s), Slow Romance, Sorry Not Sorry, WIP, please read warnings inside
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow_Gigglemug/pseuds/Rainbow_Gigglemug
Summary: (This along with all my other works is the rough draft version of this story. Feedback is appreciated, even if it's just a Kudos. <3)Rail has been hated and feared since his mother died just after giving him his name branding him a murderer at not even a day old, the King of Thorns is the King of the fey that live in the forest north of the village and who's name alone strikes fear into their hearts.Rail spends his days mucking dung and scrounging to find enough food to fill his belly, it's not a glamorous life but at least he's alive.All that changes as a string of miscarriages leads to Rail being bound and left as sacrifice to the monstrous King of Thorns.As he accepts his fate Rail dreams up a most fetching fantasy of a would be rescuer spiriting him away into luxury, but that's all a fever dream...Right?
Kudos: 2





	The King of Thorns

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: this story does contain scenes similar to torture, mentions of physiological torture though not directly called so and mentions of physical and mental abuse.
> 
> oh and M/M love, if that's not your cup of tea why did you click the link in the first place, I put it in the tags for a reason.

“Let me go!”

Rail was ashamed to admit he was crying as he struggled in his captors hold. At least the sack they’d thrown over his head had hidden the tears.

Who could blame him for his tears though? Not all that long ago he’d been gathering herbs near the forest that grew along the southern border of the village he called home when Seloren and his gaggle of mindless followers, in Rail’s opinion that is, had ambushed him.

Faster than Rail had been able to comprehend they’d had his wrists and legs bound, his hair sheered off and his head shoved into an old feed bag before he was thrown over someone’s shoulder like a sack of grain. He’d been helpless against them, fellow elf though he was, years of barely filling his belly had left him nothing more than a bundle of walking sticks. Now he found himself being carried Valdar knows where.

Rail wheezed as the air was knocked out of him by his transporter who’d given him a good bounce against their shoulder.

“Stop your squirming, you’re just making this worse.”

Ah, so it was the large Remohlm’s shoulder shoved into his gut. What did he mean exactly by ‘this’? He was already trussed up like a pig, unless they were about to toss him down a cliff or into a river there wasn’t much that could be worse. Rail pondered as he tried to get his breath back.

“Think we should give him a wash? You know, get this stink of horse dung off him. Doesn’t seem very appealing.”

Rail heard Riya pipe up, no doubt from Seloren’s arm, trying to get her breasts as close to him as possible.

“Not a bad idea,” Seloren sounded positively delighted, “there’s a river on the way, a good few dunks should do it!”

Oh, Valdar they were going to drown him. With visions of his own bloated body bobbing along down the river flashing across his mind, Rail gave a weak attempt at escape once more.

“That’s it.”

Rail let out a yell as Remohlm dropped him like a heavy sack of wheat. He saw white as a searing pain erupted from his right shoulder and blazed a trail down his arm, not to mention the sudden ache in his ribs and newfound throbbing in his head.

He whimpered as Remohlm slung him with little care back over his shoulder.

“you so much as twitch and I’ll give you a good toss, you got it?”

He didn’t wait for Rail’s strained yes before setting off again, the gentle sway was making Rail nauseous.

Rail was so focused on not losing his breakfast into the sack that would leave it nowhere pleasant to go that when he was suddenly upended and enrobed by frigid water, the sudden shock of the cold left him gasping and sputtering. This only led to his mouth filling with the cold water and he was left hacking as he was lifted from the river.

“Yeah, just like that Rem, got to do it until the stink comes off. The filth too, what, you never heard of a bath Rail?”

“Oh, don’t be so cruel Sel, I doubt the pigs care about his stink when he spends the night with them!” Riya chimed, earning laughs from all around her.

Rail found himself submerged once more, gasped as he was pulled up and then dunked again. He tried to pull in a large enough breath each time he was pulled from the water, but the now sodden sack proved difficult, all the while the laughter of the surrounding elves rang in his ears.

Rail didn’t realize the dunkings were finished until he was thrown over Remohlm’s shoulder again. He tugged at the sack with feeble fingers, but it did little good, he still felt as if he were drowning. Rail hung in a limp daze. He couldn’t have even told you for how long they walked before he was again lifted from his unwanted perch and pressed against what felt like a large tree.

Rail made a half-hearted attempt at struggling as he felt new roped binding him to the tree but all it did was earn him a solid blow to his already aching head.

“See, if you had just stayed still, I wouldn’t have had to do that.” Rail heard Seloren say from just in front of him.

Rail felt the new ropes tighten until he could scarcely breath was violently removed. His eyes having adjusted to the dark sack, Rail found himself blinded at first and even as his eyes readjusted everything was covered in a blurry haze.

He could just make out his three main tormentors and the undefined shadows surrounding them had to be the rest of the village youth.

“Comfortable?” Seloren asked with an exaggerated look of concern on his face, “ropes aren’t too tight, are they?”

Seloren broke into a cackle then, quickly followed by the others. When the blond finished, Rail rallied all the strength he had left to gasp out one thing.

“Why?”

Seloren might have been rotten to the core, but he wasn’t a stupid elf,” Poor, poor Rail, haven’t you heard? Women of the village have been dropping their unborn with unnatural frequency, five in just one week! The elders have no doubt it is the King of Thorns who has placed this curse on the village, and we all know that there is only one way to appease the fay king, a sacrifice.” Seloren spread his arms wide, “and who better to sacrifice to stop a curse of child killing than the elf who killed his own mother as he took his first breath and stained his hair with her blood!”

Cheers rose up around them as Seloren finished with a flourish, Rail shrank against the tree as insults and more solid things like rocks and sticks were thrown at him. They only stopped when Seloren moved in close to Rail until his breath puffed warmly against Rail’s cheek, though he was careful not to touch him.

“Now be a good murderer and die for your village.”

With that Seloren turned, took Riya by the waist and sauntered off. The others were slow to follow, some lobbing a few more pieces of rock at Rail before the Black Glade was left empty.

Hours passed and what energy hadn’t been taken by his journey to the Black Glade was easily wicked away by the chill made worse by his damn clothing. He hung limply against the aptly named King’s Willow, wondering if the King of Thorns was going to kill him before some wild thing got to him first.

Numbed by the cold and bleak despair, Rail didn’t see the shadow come or feel the roped slacken.

Rail found himself instead in what could only be a dream, the evil kind of course, the kind so good that when he woke the next morn he would weep at its loss.

He had been wrapped in a warm heavy cloak and was being carried away from the Black Glade, where his body no doubt still hung, in the arms of a being so strikingly beautiful they could only be a product of his imaginings. Whoever he had conjured had skin so pale that the moonlit snow would have been put to shame and had long, thick hair that spilled past their shoulders in that particular shade only ravens could normally boast of. He couldn’t resist trying to touch his imagined savior, he managed to brush a surprisingly warm cheek and was met with a pair of beautiful amber eyes before everything faded to black.


End file.
